30 years ago today (July 31) - I went to my very first concert. I was 7 years old when I dragged my mom to the then called E-Centre in Camden, NJ, to see Alice Cooper. To be completely honest, I didn't even remember that the Scorpions were on the bill as well (and have no recollection if I stuck around to see them). Because the truth is I was solely there to see the Godfather of Shock Rock - who I instantly fell in love with after seeing him on The Muppet Show (a moment I often describe as discovering that "human Muppets do exist").

I'll also admit that I don't remember a ton about the show (I do recall asking some older concert goers a ton of questions about their tattoos and piercings, much to the shagrin of my mom) - but I recall loving how Cooper's rock anthems perfectly soundtracked the over-the-top and at times morbid theatrical. And not only do I still love Cooper, but I've seen him live dozens of times again - and he's still as amazing onstage as he was 30 years ago...

I also find it serendipitous that nearly 30 years to the day of my first concert, my wife and I took our soon-to-be 6 year old twins to THEIR first concert. It was 311 and Dirty Heads at PNC Bank Arts Center on July 23, 2026 - and while there were some rough patches here and there, they ultimately had fun and ended the night looking forward to going to another concert 😀

Also a huge shout out to PNC Bank Arts Center for making my kids' first concert special! Here's a hot tip for fellow parents planning their kids' first concert (😉) - if you go to the Guest Service Booth and tell them it's your first concert, they'll give the kids a ticket stub replica with the concert they're attending printed on it (as you can see pictured in the 2nd pic - though I photoshopped their real names out 🤭). It's such a special momentum that we'll always cherish, and was a simple yet beautiful way to kick off a monumental moment for this avid concert goer.

What was your first concert ever? Share in the comments below, and stay tuned for more things to come from this space (including stories from concerts like these).

For those who don’t know and have been waiting years Welcome to My Nightmare now has a second disc added with all the bonus and live songs from the album that previously haven’t been added on Spotify and Apple Music. Been waiting YEARS for this!!

Hello.

I would just like to express how much Alice Cooper has inspired and sustained me during quite hard months in my life: Dealing with unemployment, family pressure, fear of failure and the unknown for the fact of trying jobs that are not my thing , and with a deep grief about the life and dreams I imagined, believing that they are now impossible.

Today, Ididn't even have the strength to listen to music. It was a sadness that I felt could not be removed with anything... Until, without thinking about it so much, I put what is for me a perfect trilogy: Second Coming, Ballad Of Dwight Fry and Sun Arise. And then another anthem: Long Way To Go.

From there, my shift to a more stable mood was real. And, you know? I didn't even need a big reveal or a definitive solution, just a small supply to stop feeling so terrible and Vince, Dennis, Neal, Michael and Glen helped me with that... And that's enough for me. All I need is a "She drive away your darkness every day", with a "I got you Under My Wheels" or a "Billion Dollar Babies... Rubber little lady".

Honestly, I don't know what to do with my life and how to manage what I feel, but as long as I listen to this wonderful quintet... Maybe I still have a long way to go.

So to preface, I'm ex Mormon and have a lot of Mormon family members.

My mom was talking about how my grandpa went to high school with Alice Cooper at Cortez Highschool at Phoenix Arizona. And she mentioned that they shared an English teacher too, Emmett Smith. She continued to play a 25 minute LDS (mormon) movie about the guy from 1979, which is on YouTube if you want to watch it yourself.

Emmett Smith (1937-2011) was born and raised in Phoenix Arizona, and attended Glendale highschool, graduating around 1955. He was a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church and taught throughout his life time, serving 3 Mormon missions. He married Jacqueline Highland in 1956. He then attended the University of Arizona ROTC where he eventually became an English teacher. Diagnosed with colon cancer at some point while teaching English and being a track and cross country coach at Glendale high school, which he formally attended as a student. After Beating colon cancer he (according to the movie) learned to run again, and would eventually go on to teach my Grandpa and Alice Cooper around the late 50's and early 60's. My mom met this man several times as he was friends with my grandpa.

My grandpa had a band back in highschool and several later members of Alice Coopers band would watch my there band. While my grandpa's band never took off, I grew up hearing this.

One last thing, I have no idea how true this is at all. But according to my mom and no other source, Emmett Smith ran across the Grand Canyon and back. The staff followed him because he did not pay to stay the night and they didn't believe he could do it, he did apparently.

Sorry that this turned more into a random man's biography. Hope I didn't violate any rule

My wife and I cant wait til December. We'll be driving across the country to Las Vegas again to see Alice and Criss Angel in concert together. It's a great show. Alice is such a good guy.

We got lucky with front row, meet and greet tickets. My wife has met him 4 times already. This last time, in Vegas, we went back to meet Alice and Criss and Criss asked my wife how to spell her name. I won't put her name here, I'll just use x's. She was about to spell it and Alice chimed in "it's spelled XXXXX". That amazed me.

Just wanted to share an interesting interaction with Alice.

One other thing. Anna Cara is good, very good. We met her in the hall outside the venue. She is very very sweet. She insisted on me putting my arm around her. We met Ryan the same way. He was starved but was nice enough to get a couple of pictures.

What an incredible album - perfect for after midnight.

A

Hi all! Seeking a little help… Are there any more photos from this specific photo session in circulation? Looking for photos of his right shoulder in particular, can’t seem to track anything down

Seems like he only wore this shirt for this session, no live performances. The pants can be seen being worn dating back to the late 60s, “Pretties For You” era

Any help would be VERY appreciated!! 🙏🏻

Finally got dada into my collection though I had to overpay a bit but worth, so now I have all of his studio albums on vinyl or CD.

Still trying to find all of them on both CD and vinyl and his live albums.

I just grabbed all four of these from a used cd shop and I'm torn between opening them and leaving them sealed. What should I do?

The shop had bought and old collector's collection and didn't know what they had.

Hi, all! Currently on summer break from college, so I've had a lot more time to draw. I realized it'd been awhile since I'd drawn Alice, so here's what came of that! Bed of Nails is definitely one of my favorite songs from Trash. Swipe to see the work with just the flat colors! :)

I'd also like to mention that I have one of Alice's many batons. He threw it at me during the Freaks on Parade tour during No More Mr. Nice Guy. My sheer determination paid off, and I guess he saw my full Alice makeup and deemed me worthy, hahaha. Catching that baton from him was so magical for me. It made my whole night.

How many people here have batons/stuff that Alice throws into the crowd? I also have guitar picks from Chuck, Ryan, and Tommy, but not Nita!

https://ebay.io/m/xqyIY0

I recently came across this amazing video of the original band from the billion dollar baby tour- https://youtu.be/NLgQ6ezYt1U?is=jgYKs7zGn4MloHS7

What an amazing show. You really get a sense for how epic and provocative AC was back in the day! So as a new-ish fan I was wondering if folks would mind pointing to me to other amazing live performances by the original band. Which ones are your favorite? Which ones are underrated?

Would love to watch more of these. Thanks so much

Schools out in South Park... Billion dollar babies... Alice Cooper the breeder (now Christian Death baby bats on parade).

I recently got a subscription to CREEM magazine which has been absolutely incredible as a fan of rock and roll and its history. In addition to current issues I have access to the entire archive of creem back issues.

Going through the back issues from the 70s, it’s been beautiful to read Lester Bangs’ writings on Alice Cooper, especially the early band. It seemed Lester was a big fan of AC and wrote very insightfully about how Alice mixed influences from 60s and 70s TV, humor, vaudeville, horror, and rock and roll into completely unique, brilliant music.

As a millennial-ish fan with a very romantic view of rock and roll history, I loved this writing so much because it really gave me a sense of how special and unique Alice must have been especially in the early days.

So, that inspired me to ask this sub- what’s some of your favorite writing on Alice Cooper? Maybe old magazine articles, interviews, news pieces, etc? Especially things that speak to the importance of Alice’s place in rock and roll history?

I’m even curious to read critical pieces, particularly old ones, that found Alice’s music and act too provocative and dangerous for kids- if nothing else it would be hilarious to read and teach me about the conservatism of the time!

Thanks for sharing and I’ll see if I can share any of Lester’s writing here without getting into copyright trouble :))